Rio, July 24, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The steps taken by the Administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, through the creation of the Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality, constitute a big advance in the sense of building citizenship and eliminating discrimination in the country. This positive assessment was made by the coordinator in the Americas of the International Youth Forum against Racism, Zakiya Carr Johnson, who is in Brazil with the Law Group, composed of American lawyers who study affirmative action in education and quotas for people of African descent at universities.

The Forum was created by the United Nations (UN) at the World Conference against Racism, in Durban, South Africa.

In the case of Brazil, she said that, although there are Afro-Brazilian ministers in the government, the black population has not attained representativeness and integration in terms of racial discrimination. "The situation is all the more grave, when the country has such a high percentage of black people without purchasing power and access to formal education," she affirmed.

Carr, who is studying for a master's degree in International Relations at Syracuse University, believes that the establishment of quotas for blacks at Brazilian universities, as in the United States, will help in the process of racial equality, "but it is not enough." (DAS)